Judges 9, Nahum 1, Luke 4:1-14, 1 Tim 4:6-16, Psalms 26: If I were to ask you to describe God you would probably describe His love, care for us and mightiness. Rare has been the time when I have asked a group or people about God that they described Him like this.
Nahum:2 “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.”
Though we would not describe Him like that, these are accurate descriptions of God as well. Our culture focuses on the positive attributes, but many have also known the side that Nahum describes. God is jealous and will not have us give our love and allegiance to anything or anyone above Him. Some may say that is not right, but He created all things and everything belongs to Him. Therefore He is worthy of our love, appreciation and praise. Nothing is greater than Him. In His great love He will use whatever is necessary to bring us into right relationship with Him. Thus sometimes it takes being conquered to be blessed. Anyone who does not turn to Him will be crushed. I have often thought and said I would rather choose to be broken before Him than crushed by Him. I am thankful that though I know these truths about the Father, I have not often seen His wrath. I am grateful for His slowness to anger and thankful He forgives those of us guilty who turn to Him.